Easter Island is a Chilean island located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. It's most widely known for the incredible stone statues - called moai - that were created and scattered across the island by its early inhabitants, the Rapa Nui. When the Polynesians first settled on the island between 700 and 1100 CE, they developed a thriving society of nearly 15,000 people. But it wasn't until the first Europeans visited the island, under the direction of a Dutch explorer named Jacob Roggeveen, that the name Easter Island was adopted, as he first happened upon the mysterious island on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1722.
#EasterIsland #RapaNui #WeirdHistory
I agree. This was a really long way of saying “we don’t know”
Listen to lost sivila
He said it 20 seconds into the vdeo
lol if we only talked about history if we knew 100% exactly what happened, we'd barely ever talk about anything
We will never know anything about history. I wish I was a scientist, & get paid for a guess at what really happened. Must be nice
Thanks for the spoiler!!
The civilization simply sacrificed itself so Squidward could have a home
LOL Lol 😂
LMAOOOOOO
I never realized squidward’s house was an Easter island head 🤦
Here lies Squidward's hopes and dreams.
Balanced as everything should be
*At a Rapa Nui meeting* Citizens: We need to focus on making more canoes and harvesting food! The government: ok, but 🗿
Lmao yes
Yo!
At the time it was purported to be decimated with no good soils left for agriculture there were gardens all over the island. They had enough of a food surplus to resupply the European ships that landed. As for the deforestation, that was caused by the rats that came with the first islanders that arrived there. They had no natural predators and ate the seeds.Even with that the first Europeans report seeing groves of trees when they arrived, certainly enough to build canoes. The population collapse was driven by European diseases and slaving. The vid did mention that at least.
You just wanted an excuse to use that emoji.
“But sir! Building more moai will cause the collapse of our civilization! “JUST DO IT!!” 🗿🗿🗿
"An infestation of rats" *Shows photos and videos of gerbils and mice*
"this is Iran"
Forget it Jake, it's KZheadtown
We really don't need verification of what a rat looks like. A rat king perhaps lol
this is literally the greatest channel of all time
@@Docmain3 oh those are strange
This was a really long way of saying “we don’t know” lol
I mean its called a theory
i mean there's different degrees of not knowing. This was "here are some detailed, compelling theories with different degrees of evidence, but we don't know for sure which one" not "we have absolutely no damn clue." You make it seem like this video was a waste of time or sth
@@user-zr9hu3tf1y I was just making a joke, I really enjoy their videos.
Thanks for the "heads-up."
Spoilers dude! Lmao xD
The Rapa Nui still exist today, you know. The culture isn't dead.
Yes. I saw a documentary on them several years ago.
I'm chilean and I can confirm the culture and people there prevail to this day haha. But this was interesting nevertheless
@Ricardo VS The people and culture still exist, they just don't carve moai anymore.
They actually despise us, chileans lmao, can totally relate since our politicians basically stole Rapa Nui
@@PaulinaGnecco muy cierto jsjs
Rapa Nui is a culture that is still alive to this day. I have visited the Island, and the natives there pay so much attention to their culture, their sacred beliefs, their ancestors. Every Chilean knows about rapa nui and their culture
But why did they build their statues
@@Jarack123 Why does any culture build idols?
Rapa Nui are still Polynesians
@@Jarack123 why not? They're cool
They aren't. It's a reconstruction/neo version of what the people believe the rapa nui used to be. Most locals have a large portion of mainlander/European ancestry from colonization and speak Spanish as their native language. The original language, practices, etc have been lost mostly to time
Hello Weid History, speak to us about Mansa Musa and the kingdom of Mali
Good idea
Mansa 'Moneybags' Musa. Local economy on the route to Mecca: exists Musa's pocket change: I'm about to end this man's whole career
Good one! Also the Comanche, the empire of the summer moon.
Well, of course they failed you can’t run your business focusing only on Easter. You have the profit of other holidays too
Tell that to those tax evaders (the Clause family)
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Well... example is Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana
Like a Halloween store in January?
These dad jokes are soooo lame ..
My wife and I were on Easter Island at Christmas (2018). Now we need to go to Christmas Island at Easter.
Lmao to Kiribati then.
i approve of your sense of humor
So funny 😑
😂😂 dryyyyyyy lol
They didn’t roll the statues on logs they walked them. There have been reports that when explorers asked the natives how they moved the statues the natives would reply that the statues “walked”. You can look up an example of how they were thought to have done it on KZhead. They would essentially tie long ropes around the statues heads and have a team of people on either side teeter the statue left and right.
True
Yeah I saw the video of how they "walked"
They held their hands and walked em
This is our best guess, it is not a fact
Not native
Thank you Weird History. I was hoping y'all would cover this. Still patiently waiting on Timeline: The 90's.
No
I'm of Maori/Samoan decent. In many Polynesian cultures, statues were often carved in remembrance of chieftains or other important people. When the statues face inwards it meant times of peace, when the statues face outwards it meant times of war as the spirits of the chieftains were watching the horizon for trouble. Environmental and resource pressures lead to deforestation of Rapanui, larger trees often protect young saplings from harsh weather and pests. Because the larger trees were harvested it probably left the young saplings venerable leading to a knock-on-effect. The vandalism of the Moai might of had something to do with the idea that destroying an ancestor could destroy any claims held by their descendants, such as land rights and political status.
That sounds like it would be comforting, especially when the representations of the ancestors are so visible.
"When food starts running out..." Ocean: "shhh hide the seafood.. whoosh whoosh"..
Seafood did start to run out, the local fish stocks near the shore were heavily overfished, and as the forests collapsed and were chopped down the locals could no longer make large ocean-going canoes that could go further out to sea to find new fish stocks. The Rapa Nui resorted to hunting birds more heavily, which lead to the extinction of the Easter island frigate bird, which was an important part of their culture and is even featured as a symbol in their ancient writing system. The make-make religion originally revolved around frigate birds, but after their extinction they focused on the sooty tern, another species of bird, and you can see this in the writing system, in the youngest text recovered the frigatebird symbol has a noticeably different beak but is otherwise the same, and the older symbol never appears anywhere on that text, showing how the frigatebird was simply replaced. If the Europeans and Peruvians hadn’t caused the population to fall due to slavery and disease, they probably would’ve suffered a severe famine that would’ve reduced it that way. There’s already evidence of long famine periods in the artwork produced by the Rapa Nui so it’s clear the ecosystem was struggling to support their population when it reached its peak.
[Rapa Nui]: Chop down the trees! [Big Heads]: smh
smbh*
Happening today😂
Fall Of Civilizations Podcast did the best take on Easter Island. Their civilization didn't collapse until foreigners showed up and spread their diseases. The deforestation and rats were intentional by people who cleared land for farming and used rats as a food source. There's no archaeological evidence of starvation or war, which would be easy to find if they happened.
Yup. Original research vs rehashing. FoC is great.
I thought there was some evidence of famine in the local artwork, they produced emancipated figures at times of famine and fatter figures at times of plenty, and the latter are very rare.
Thank you for introducing me to a new podcast! Sounds interesting.
Oh yes that podcast is incredible, no sensationalism, all sources and at the same time awesome presentation. Quickly becoming my favourite popular history channel
It was on its way. I mean at one point they turned into a bird cult and had people running of cliffs and swimming across shark waters to get an egg and become bird king ........hmmm
Fact: I built all those Moai
The Easter bunny did
OMG I CANT BELIEVE KIM JONG-UN COMMENTED
#Thank dear leader
The Supreme Moai Leader
License to IL.
Rapa Nui : *Fighting and eating eachother Big Heads: 🗿
Can you do one on the history of Pacific Islanders, such as the history of Hawaii and Guam for example?
Other than "How we Ruined Hawaii" which they've done 😣
Yeah but be careful with the term Pacific Islanders cuz there’s 3 different ethnic groups in the Pacific. Us Polynesians aren’t the only people in the Pacific. Just letting you know. Cuz you said Guam and Hawaii but the Hawaiian people are Polynesians meanwhile the Chamorro people (Native people of Guam) are Micronesians.
Actually Jacob probably killed them all inadvertently with his diseases he didn’t know he had
Of course.. The white man killed them.
it was james cook
That didn’t help, but it was the Spanish that seriously introduced diseases, Spanish and Peruvian slaving raids captured most of the able bodied men including their final literate kings and nobles, and the people who were left caught diseases from the visitors which became epidemics.
@@t900badbot based
Could you make a video on Native Americans and the sides of their culture the text books never taught?
How is he suppose to find out any information if it’s not in text books?
@@bonniebrindle8335 the text books we learned from in school always used filtered information. Leaving large portions out sense the winners are the ones who wrote them
@@bonniebrindle8335 duh by asking Native Americans
@@bonniebrindle8335 if you enjoy reading, you should check out James Loewen’s book Lies My Teacher Told Me. He has a lot of left out information there.
@@jas3713 what tribes does it talk about?
and to think all this time I thought their civilization collapsed due a large chocolate egg-laying rabbit! Thanks for teaching me.
‘Slash and burn’ Sounds like a rap duo
A wrestling team...
Uh yeah, slash and burn Ok, uhuh, alright Thats all I dont know how to rhyme anything Im sorry Breaking down yo?
Slash and Burn is definitely metal
Person 1: we are starving and there is not much trees around us. Person 2: then let's plant some tree- Person 3: how about a new God? Person 1: great idea! Nature: **internal screaming**
They did try to plant new trees, but the rats would eat the seedlings, and the natural growth rate was too slow to support their population as it grew. By the 1760s, the island was devoid of all trees more than 3m tall, and 50 years later there were very few that even reached that height. Today it’s mostly just grassland.
"Some guess this, but there's no evidence for it, so someone else guesses something else."
Fascinating and sad, thanks for posting!
Yo weird history, amazing video as always.
Great video - thanks.
While debating the nuances it is still clear that the trees were gone, with a large negative impact that is reasonably connected to a decrease in carrying capacity of the environment.
Europeans killed them for gold and resources
I have a pet catfish that lives in a head like that.
@@josemozo9636 i'll let him know.
@Mr Mojo Risin WHY DID THIS COMMENT MAKE ME LAUGH OUT LOUD
@Weird History great video, maybe you can make a video about the golden age of the Netherlands. as a Dutchman myself I am always curious about the achievements of my country (and also her black pages) x)
I'm so happy and proud this video is free of any conspiracy bs concerning aliens and whatnot. Cudos! Keep up the good work my friend!
I'm not saying aliens but...aliens. lol
It always astounds me how big those statues actually are
Talk about the Crocodiles that decimated the Japanese at the Battle of Ramree Island in World War 2!
Whoa what?! I’ve never heard of this before! 😅
Is that the one where retreating Japanese troops were eaten by crocodiles after the aussies forced them back at Kokoda?
@@bennpick8838 it wasn't crocs it was Godzilla
@@bennpick8838 yup, lotta people died
Just watch simple history
Very interesting and worthwhile video.
Good video!
As usual another well informed mini doc presented with a splash of humor. Great job!
I've watched many documentaries about Easter Island. I've read the history and I've seen a Moai up-close at the British Museum, which also has the bird cult info on the back. In just under 11 minutes, you've wrapped up all the known evidence into a comprehensive and interesting little package. I'm impressed :)
Yeah I'm impressed with how wrong it is.
Could you do a video on the Maori people of New Zealand?
As a Maori, not too hype about this. 😂 He can't pronounce Japanese and our language, Te Reo Maori, has the same vowels and very similar consonants. So, yeah wouldn't be keen to hear my language butchered. 😂
This is a pretty good one: kzhead.info/sun/gdtxYdinloqji4U/bejne.html
The place is so full of mystery! Would be incredible to spend time on that island, especially during Easter!
The Mayan civilization was another that mysteriously disappeared. Especially because they had huge cities
Bruh
Yeah, they were mysterious slaughtered by the Europeans
@@chistinelane so mysterious, wonder where they went
@@chistinelane the Mayan people still exist today, but I think what OP meant is when they where in their peak of civilization as a whole, they mysteriously abandoned their customs and culture, the Spanish/Europeans only met them when they were living as small tribes
It's not mysterious at all. Subtle decreases in solar radiance and regional climate changes cause the agricultural output of the region to decline to the point where more complex, urban societies couldn't be sustained. But the Mayan people and culture didn't die out. In fact, they were some of the most ferocious group of people to resist Spanish rule and colonization.
There's a cool documentary that shows how a small group of people can move the statues while upright in a walking motion using only rope
Briefly mentioned in the video with Hunt & Lipo's book "The Statues that Walked".
The content and length of these videos are a perfect combination to provide me with a decent distraction for awhile ..
"Oh my kingdom, my kingdom! All for the want of rat terriers!" Culture collapse all for the want of man's best friend🐶
My kingdom for a rat terrier!
A video about the Proto-indoeuropeans would be pretty interesting
I think it would be cool if you did a video that was just one weird fact about every president
Nice facts to hear from you
Do Gobekli Tepe please! Fascinates me more than anything else
Love this channel! Only one dislike at 3.2k views, amazing 👏👌🙌
Gum Gum
Night at the museum
I really love this show very informative and at times funny
I won't mind seeing you guys make a video about Doggerland or the Minoan Civilization and how they disappeared
Love this channel. Waiting with bated breath for the new decade installment: The 1990's.
Ah Yes, The Good Old Days
Can u please make a video on manikarnika or the queen of jhansi pls pls pls and if anyone sees this pls like my comment cause i really want a video on her Edited:guys thank you for your likes i hope he would mke a vid on her...
Ancient Aliens season 1- "How did they move those massive statues when their are no trees on the island?!"
They cut the trees down to move them and used all of em so there's none left
@@meaux5605 precisely
could you do a video on what it was like to be an emperor ? japan, china etc
Fall of Civilizations channel did a much, much better treatment of this subject
I've been there and loved it!! Wish to go back some day.
I remember seeing a special about people attempting to "walk" the statues, and they were successful! It was fascinating to watch.
In my anthropology classes we learned that the collapse was due to the inhabitants eating the palm trees seeds or whatever they are called. I can’t remember exactly as this was in like 2013. But basically there was a part of the tree that in order to eat, they had to cut down the entire tree. So they overate their resources.
Palm hearts. Unlike the sago palm which is full of starch and calories, the edible palm hearts of the Rapa Nui palm were mainly full of water and minimal calories leading to it's overconsumption.
Yagirl's finally earlyy ☘️☘️☘️ I love your content so much, keep up the good work!! ❣️❣️💫
That dude became human beef jerky. “SNAP INTO A SLIM ICEMAN!!! Oh YEAHHHH”
You guys should do a Bermuda Triangle video! I’m a big fan of the channel, it’s kept me sane during lockdowns and COVID in general
U okay still
Interesting to hear the 'reassessment' of the population of the society never really being that many people on Easter Island. At 7k people, that's 47 people per sq km. Doubtful they ever had 10k on the Island.
The Easter island statue are a mystery. 😀👍🗿
These heads, Stonehege, pyramids always fascinate me.
pls make a video on indus valley civilization
I took an art history class on Oceania and my professor said that the moai were vandalized because they reminded tribes of the old traditions/god. And if I remember correctly I think the moai were used to bury their ancestors which would look over them and the way to “deactivate” them were by removing the eyes.
They put in eyes to ACTIVATE them so that makes sense it would take it away. I heard tribes bickered and tossed them over and then retaliation caused more to fall Also as far as the fall goes, it got bad in the island. Bodies found and Compared showed that as resources dwindle, people got more violent, and during those times bodies found have more injuries to the face. More bodies found to have been killed vs died of natural causes
They aren't just heads. They've dug around them and they have bodies.
One day they'll wake up and rise up to destroy humanity and only Thor will be able to save us. static.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/6/61/Thor_Vol_1_318.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20200619000348
Please do a video about Ferdinand Magellan!
I’d love to see a history on the construction of the Horseshoe Curve!
I’m Pacific Islander and I’ve always wondered why they hardly have any vegetation, let alone tropical vegetation like other islands in the pacific
Wish you would have included the caves, birdman, and aliens.
Post videos and do it yourself
@@urrealdadlolololol4204 because I make weird history videos? Mmmkay...
@@Toad_Moto history is interesting. Go ahead and try il subscribe
@@urrealdadlolololol4204 funny you say that cause the next video I'm making is about trail history.
@@Toad_Moto wellll i just subbed lol
A+ video! LOVE IT! Fascinating history, amazing images, and those statues are always fun and mysterious to look at!
Maybe a video about Avars?
Ironic, isn't it? Columbus's sailors brought syphilis back to Europe from the New World, and the Europeans then took it to an isolated island off South America and possibly decimated the Natives there.
Sharing is caring.
Fall of Civilizations did a deep dive on this, but basically the fall of Rapa Nui is believed to be attributed to disease brought by European explorers beginning with Rogeveen. It's also been proven that the did not use logs as rollers, and that the trees on the island were mainly cleared via slash and burn agriculture; even once the trees were gone they were very successful using a technique called rock mulching to grow crops and keep the soil in good condition.
Can you please do one on Indigenous Australians? Too many people don't know the true history...and believe the indigenous should just "get over it" because "it's in the past"
Can you do a video on marquis de Lafayette?
During 2020 this channel has been the real MVP
Very interesting video! I wonder what the Rapa Nui did with their dead. Are their graveyards, marked or unmarked, across the island?
Viking style maybe? Send em off into the sea on some raft type thing while on fire, I like to picture that
that would make sense... I think there isn't much info on burials probably b/c the land was mostly volcanic and even tho the type of rock there is 'softer' you still can't really dig a hole to bury people. If there were 'cemeteries' they would have mentioned it and we would have so much more info to go off of I feel like.
I bet given the limited space and difficulty and digging, they probably took them out on a canoe with something heavy tied to them to drop in the ocean.
I'd like to see a video with Weird History's take on who discovered America first.
Can you guys please make a crew neck sweatshirt version for "I survived 2020" shirt? It is great and I would totally wear it everyday. I love every video on this channel!
What would the island be called if Roggeveen had arrived a few days before or after Easter? I think that this one of the best researched videos you have made.
Giant Heads Looking Out At Sea Island.
"Tuesday"? or maybe "Thursday"? ;-D
@@gelenestrecker-sayer9117 Thursder island or Tuesder Island.
There's 1,000 jokes that could be made here but honest to God it is a really good question
A good way to start the morning. These videos teach me so much, and I look forward to them.
What about the Timeline Series?Are you continuing with the 90s?
1:55 please could you include metric units in tour video.
I've watched a video about Easter Island a few days ago on Bright Side and now I'm addicted to it. Great to see that Weird History made a video about it too.
Why didn’t I learn any of this in school?? All I knew prior to this video was that this island had the stone heads. I didn’t even knew that it was founded on Easter Day! 🤭😂
Because it irrelevant, even if you're Chilean, it doesn't matter much. The Rapa nui are one of many indigenous people that suffer from european colonists, they are just a little weirder
It wasn't founded on Easter Day, that was when the first European to stumble across it arrived. It went downhill pretty quickly afterwards.
Jen just think what you might have accomplished had you learned just that one fact! You poor deprived woman!
Anything that commemorates or refers to anything Christian is in the process of being erased. The commies want the obliterate Christmas by turning it over to a 'giant elf' (yeah, I know, just crazy) and calling it the Holidays. Easter was the day that Jesus who had been crucified to death on the cross three days earlier, rose from the dead. Promising eternal life to his followers.
@@jonhallberg8334 are you actually insane? nothing but the name of the island is related to Christianity, did you even watch this video?? I hope you’re troll, I can’t believe someone can believe and say as much crap as you did. Jesus Christ
Seriously, Weird History is my favourite channel
Can you please do a soldier in Vietnam please I really love this channel your doing great keep it up!!
Why are archeologists looking for artifacts? They should be looking for a large bunny instead
My conclusions is mainly the outsiders that brought new diseases and from being taken into slavery, that driven them to where they are now.
Exactly. The same patterns can be seen across the world where indigenous people have been pillaged and oppressed, and cultures almost destroyed (by design) because they had something that someone else (European colonisers) wanted.
new subscruber :)
8:56 Make-Make lol 🤣🤣🤣
I think there’s so much more to these ancient civilisations than we are told, I strongly believe they were far more advanced than we credit them
They are just look at the incas building cities and empires in mountains and having mail carriers and a calendar and having knowledge of math, and the Myans building empires carved from stone and the Aztecas who built an empire on a lake. They all made things we use today and that was thousands of years ago. They made things work that some companies and businesses can barely do today
That's why using the word "advanced" is not a good choice. Anthropologists have started saying more "complex" societies. Advanced is too much of a value judgement.
@@fosterfuchs but I would consider it advanced because they did these things with stones and wood and in much harder conditions than nowadays
It’s like when I see a new Weird History video my thumb acts on its own lol.
Great video fascinating 🗿🗿🗿
The demise of the people of Easter island is plain and simple, they didn't have the weird history Channel to learn from and thereby avoiding the mistakes of other civilizations. It's something to think about.